The second day of the inaugural COP28 Business and Philanthropy Forum included key announcements on preserving nature, energy transition alongside a methane abatement accelerator and an initiative to decarbonise health supply chains

Key business and philanthropy leaders joined with leaders of multilateral development banks and political leaders from emerging economies at COP28 on Saturday, to introduce a range of initiatives aimed at harnessing the resources of business and philanthropy for climate action.

The second day of the inaugural COP28 Business and Philanthropy Forum included key announcements on preserving nature, energy transition alongside a methane abatement accelerator and an initiative to decarbonise health supply chains.

The day was opened with a keynote address from Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, who gave insights into how business and philanthropy leaders can work with global organizations to catalyse a just transition to a greener economy.

A discussion on transition funding, involving Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek Holdings; and Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, also explored the distinctive blended finance platform championed by Ahmed Saeed, CEO of Allied Climate Partners, and International Finance Corporation as one of the investors.

With opening remarks from Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive, Ingka Group, IKEA, the forum also hosted a key discussion on energy, which explored how the sector and other heavy emitting industries can work with policy-makers to galvanize broad action to advance the just energy transition and reduce emissions, whilst providing accessible energy to support the development of all economies and people.

Commenting on the forum and the role the private sector must play in climate and nature, COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy and Chair of the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum Badr Jafar said, “Governments simply do not have the available capital or capacity to make the climate transition on their own. To move from the billions to the trillions we need, we require urgent, unprecedented, delivery-focused public, business, and philanthropic collaboration. The Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum represents a paradigm shift that recognizes this opportunity and connects diverse stakeholders in a way that creates a multiplier effect on climate and nature impact. The private sector increasingly recognizes that embracing a sustainable and equitable future, leaving no one behind is the growth story of our time.”

The day also featured sessions on media and climate, harnessing nature for climate impact, the built environment, space and climate, the effects of climate on health, and a pitch session where climate entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to investors.

Among the initiatives announced at the forum were:

Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator

Bezos Earth Fund CEO Andrew Steer introduced the USD 250 million Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator to speed up methane mitigation in cattle production. The initiative is a collaboration with Methane Hub, CIFF, Quadrature Climate Foundation, and Danone.

The Data for the Methane Action Campaign

The Data for Methane Action Campaign, which aims to turn methane data into action, was unveiled by Kate Hampton, CEO of CIFF, in collaboration with Global Methane Hub, High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Bezos Earth Fund. The campaign is valued at USD 100 million.

Join the Planet

A global movement dedicated to recycling waste materials into useful items and reusing them to fund projects worldwide that can preserve, repair, and regenerate natural ecosystems through collaboration with local people was unveiled by Join the Planet board member Alex Avellanet.

First Movers Coalition

The CEOs of Volvo Group and Norsk Hydro implemented a new partnership to co-develop a roadmap towards supplying near-zero aluminium in 2030 during the First Movers Coalition session.

Health for Climate

Leaders pledged to advocate for challenging net-zero goals in all supply chains related to the healthcare system. Increased incidence of infectious diseases, malnourishment, and heat stress are among the health effects of climate change. The effort, which was laid out by AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, will try to reduce the amount that the global health system contributes to the ultimate increase in health burden that it will encounter.

Nature Positive for Climate Action

Over 150 businesses and financial institutions committed to a call to action to support a whole-of-economy approach to transforming the economy/society to meet climate and nature goals. Given the results of the Global Stocktake, it is crucial to activate the ambition loop to strengthen action from parties and put us on the path to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The Indigenous Peoples Initiative

Hindou Ibrahim, Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, made a call to action to provide direct financing for indigenous peoples and organisations, to join forces in protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity.

ONE AMAZON and ONE AMAZON Impact Fund

The world’s first trillion-dollar nature-based asset platform, ONE AMAZON and ONE AMAZON IMPACT FUND, was revealed by Rodrigo Veloso, founder and CEO of ONE AMAZON, and Peter Knez, chairman of ONE AMAZON. This platform will benefit all stakeholders and have a long-term effect on the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest.

New Funding on Super Pollutants

Christie Ulman, President, Sequoia Climate Foundation, in partnership with Global Methane Hub and other philanthropies, said new funding for super pollutants worth USD450 million, will help countries incorporate all non-CO2 GHG2 in their new NDC targets for 2035 and leverage additional resources to triple climate finance in this category by 2030.